Tutor thrashed for ‘molesting’ students

Madhab Saha (centre) being beaten up by angry parents and local people at Balurghat on Saturday. Picture by Mithun Roy

Balurghat, March 23: A private tutor was garlanded with shoes, paraded on streets and beaten up by angry people here yesterday for allegedly molesting his girl students.

Madhab Saha, 47, a resident of Biswaspara near here, was later arrested. He was produced in a court here today and remanded in jail custody for 14 days.

Saha runs a private coaching centre near his home and another at Rabindranagar here. Around seven Class IX students, including five girls, take tuitions from him at Rabindranagar where Saha has rented a room to hold classes. He teaches humanities.

According to the students, Saha often looked for excuses to touch the girls in the class.

On Friday evening, he allegedly followed a girl to the washroom and peeped into it while she was inside. Another girl saw Saha trying to look inside the washroom.

“The teacher often tried to touch us and hold our hands but we did not talk to our parents about it. On Friday, one of our friends went to the washroom and Saha followed her. He even tried to peep into the washroom. We told our parents about the incident and also that he often looked for excuses to touch the girls in the tuition. The next day, Saha came to Rabindranagar and told one of the students that he would take an extra class. Usually, we do not have his tuition on Saturdays,” said a girl.

She added that when the guardians came to know that Saha would be in the area, they accompanied the children to the tuition class.

The parents questioned Saha about his behaviour with the girls. He denied all allegations and said they were “false and baseless”. This led to an altercation during which, some angry guardians and local people slapped and punched the teacher. They garlanded him with shoes, paraded him on the streets and allegedly made him spit and lick it.

Saha was rescued by the police and later in the evening, he was arrested on the basis of a written complaint lodged by the parents of the girl whom Saha had followed to the washroom on Friday.

“When we came to know what the teacher had done, we decided to teach him a lesson,” said a guardian.

Saha has been booked under Section 354 of the IPC for molestation. Bipul Banerjee, inspector in-charge of Balurghat police station, said: “The teacher has been remanded in jail custody for 14 days.”